Hagfishes locate food by scent and feed on soft-bodied invertebrates and larger dead animals. In the best studied species, Myxine glutinosa, water enters through the nostril during respiration and passes by a nasopharyngeal duct to the pharynx and gills. When it detects the scent of a dead fish, Myxine leaves its burrow to find the carcass and coil around it. Myxine bites into its meal by protruding and retracting the comblike horny tooth plates on the floor of the mouth. Along each side of the hagfish’s body is a row of prominent glands that produce a gelatinous slime when it is disturbed.